Moving to NY: Day 4 – Visiting my Grandma in Nebraska

Day 4 of our trek was one of my favorite days of the whole trip. Mr. Envoy and I had a day to relax and catch our breath a bit after traveling 1,500 miles from California and before traveling the remaining 1,400 miles to New York. We slept in for a bit which was a nice change for us, and when we woke up my Grandma had coffee waiting and made us breakfast. We hadn’t had a homemade meal in a while so even though it was just simple scrambled eggs it was already better than most of the hotel breakfasts we had had so far.

My Grandma’s back door was right next to the kitchen, so as we ate breakfast and visited I saw other little creatures enjoying some breakfast too! First it was birds enjoying the birdseed from the feeder hanging outside but then a squirrel came and helped himself too. Silly squirrel, you’re not a bird!

I hadn’t been out to Nebraska since my Grandpa’s funeral 5 years before, so we took part of the day and went to the cemetery where he was buried. My dad’s side of the family has lived in the area for a long time, so my Grandma pointed out family members and how I was related to them. My immediate family isn’t terribly large compared to some, but I know almost nothing about my extended family. With my dad being from Nebraska and my mom from South Dakota I haven’t really met too many family members that fit that category, but it was nice seeing that I have so many relatives because even though the ones my Grandma pointed out were deceased, they all still had living family members that I was related to.

While we were out at the cemetery we could hear thunder off in the distance behind the cornfields and it was starting to sprinkle, so my Grandma headed back into Mr. Envoy’s car while I walked around the cemetery one last time. I knew the last names of my closest relatives buried at the cemetery, so I went around taking photos of the stones to see if it would help my dad and his cousin figure out more of our family tree and how we were all related. Out of the 4 sections of the small cemetery (this cemetery is for a town with a population of 2,200 people, not the towns of 40,000 people or more that I’m used to back home) my relatives could have taken up at least 1 1/2 sections if they were all grouped together. I had no idea I had so much family!

On the way back to my Grandma’s house she directed us around town to finish showing off things like the new hospital or the historic Fillmore County courthouse that was built in 1894. I unfortunately had left my cellphone at my her house while we were out so when I stopped to snap a picture of the courthouse I borrowed Mr. Envoy’s phone. Unfortunately for me he’s currently at his first day of work as a Recruiter and I forgot to get the picture off his phone before he left so I’ll substitute the one below one until he gets home and I can snag it. :P Isn’t it gorgeous? I love old historic buildings, don’t you?

Once we got back to my Grandma’s house I had a mission to complete by decree of my dad: write down and learn how to make my Grandma’s famous Chocolate Cream Pie. It was one of my dad’s favorite pies growing up and still is today, so he tasked me with learning how to make it in person while I had the chance, so I can make it for him when he comes out to New York to visit me. Learning how to make his favorite pie up to his standards was a tough task, but I was up for the challenge! Also, don’t mind my hair in these pictures… I was still trying to grow my bangs out and it was humid from the thunderstorms in the area so it was just a bad hair day for me!

That’s my “oh s***” face because I just dumped a whole bunch of cocoa powder all over the counter. Oops!

Yeah… cocoa really does make quite the mess! >_<

I realized as we were baking together how nice it would have been to visit my Grandma more often and had opportunities to do this growing up, but sadly Nebraska is just too far from California. I will always cherish this memory of baking with my Grandma and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to do this because this visit could easily be the last time I see my Grandma. She’s in relatively good health, but she’s also 90 years old and lives 1,400 miles away from me, so seeing her again will require quite a bit of saving so I can get a plane ticket out there. I hope that this visit won’t be the last one, but all the same I’m glad Mr. Envoy and I were able to make a stop and see her. It meant a lot to me and to her. I love you Grandma!

And on a little brighter note, the pie turned out delicious and it was surprisingly easy to make. I have my Grandma’s recipe all written down and I will be sharing it with you all at some point in the next few months – and I say months because I’m leaving for harp camp in Utah tomorrow for a week and and am still trying to get everything sorted out so I can start school out here next month! Hopefully it will be sooner than “months” but you guys know how life likes to throw monkey wrenches into your plans, don’t you?